Posted on May 5, 2019 by Sarah Gluck & Lisa Friedman
As we conclude the program year at temple, we offer our thanks to the many, many people in our community who support the Religious School and all our varied education programs.
We thank our exceptional teachers. Your love for Judaism and your students shines through in everything you do.Your commitment to making Judaism live in the minds and hearts of the children of this community is second to none.We are grateful to you and want you to know what an honor it is to work with you.
Thank you to Rachel Frish, our director of youth engagement, for your partnership in developing informal educational experiences for our youth and teens and fostering our youth community. We wish you all the best in your new position.
To our teen madrichim, we are grateful for how generous you are with your time and very proud of how much you’ve grown through your work in the classroom, the way you help out around school, the support you provide in music and t’fillah, and how you are great all-around role models for the younger students. Thank you.
To our wonderful Religious School Committee, led by Sharon Wolff, we couldn’t do what we do without you.Thank you, Sharon, Melissa Pyle (Oversight Committee liaison), Lisa Dickholtz, Dana Shapiro, Jodi Smith, Jeff Stuart, and Tamar Yarkoni. You listen, ask questions,advise, and help with the nuts and bolts. It is a joy to do our important work in tandem with you.
To our Religious School secretary, Ivy Anglin, we appreciate how deeply you care about what you do and are amazed at your uncanny ability to anticipate everyone’s needs. Thank you for being such a warm, steady, and skillful presence.
Thank you, Caroline Kornbrek, for helping Lisa hold down the fort on Sunday mornings. Shayna Friedman, thank you for stepping up and keeping our midweek Snack Shack going in the second semester.
Amy E. Rubin, you keep everything running so smoothly. It is a pleasure to work in partnership with you.
Dina Fisher, our temple’s capable assistant, and our hard-working custodial staff, we thank you for the care you take to keep everything going behind the scenes.
To the Oversight Committee, temple board, and all the lay volunteers who support the Religious School — thank you. We are most grateful for your support.
Our clergy are our partners in so much of what we caring teacher, and wish her happiness and success in her new congregation. We offer special thanks to Rabbi Gluck, for his vision, creativity, hands-on involvement,enthusiastic teaching, and unflagging passion for making Jewish education a foundational aspect of the life of this community.
To the parents of “our” kids, thank you for the commitment you have made to fulfill the mitzvah,“V’shinantam l’vanecha, You shall teach your children.” You are our most important partners in the sacred work we all hold dear.
Last, but most definitely not least, the children of Temple Beth-El. We think it must be about you that the Talmud said, “Each child brings his/her/their own blessing into the world.” Our community and the Jewish people are blessed by your energy, enthusiasm, and joyful spirits and by how you show us what it means to be created b’tzelem Elohim, in the image of God. We miss you already.
Have a wonderful summer!
Sarah Gluck and Lisa Friedman
Originally published in the May-June 2019 issue of the Shofar. For more issues of the Shofar, visit the Shofar archives.
